FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Russia Working To Create Conditions for Syrian Refugees To Return Home

July 27, 2018 (EIRNS)—Russian officials are calling for the creation of conditions to allow for the return of millions of Syrian refugees who are outside of Syria, particularly those in neighboring countries. In order for this to work, however, it requires the involvement from the international community in order to create the conditions for their return.

“Syria won’t be able to cope on its own with the refugee predicament, it won’t have enough financial resources after going through this civil war,”

Alexander Lavrentyev, Russia’s Special Presidential Envoy for Syria, told reporters in Beirut after meeting with Lebanese President Michel Aoun on July 26. He had been in Damascus the day before for a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al Assad on the same topic.

“People understand that there is no threat from the government and from the governmental security apparatus and they are returning to their homes, to their territories which are now under the control of the government,”

Lavrentyev said. Aoun, whose country is hosting more than a million displaced Syrians, endorsed the Russian plan, committing to “Lebanon’s readiness to offer the necessary assistance to implement the Russian proposals.”

Lavrentyev also stopped in Jordan during his tour of the region, where he met with Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi. “Jordan encourages the voluntarily return of Syrians to their homeland,” Safadi said in a statement after the meeting, stressing the need to provide “security, political, social and economic grounds” to encourage Syrians to go return of their own accord.

Syrian President Bashar al Assad has added his own voice, seeking for Syrian refugees to return home. “We encourage every Syrian to come back to Syria, especially after the terrorism started to be defeated mainly in Aleppo at the end of 2016,” Assad said reported TASS.

“Of course, now there is an acceleration in defeating the terrorism and the majority of the Syrian territories have been liberated from the terrorists. So, we’ve been encouraging those refugees, many Syrians who have their own businesses, not only refugees, in different countries,”

he said.

“So, now this is the main issue between the Syrian and the Russian governments, how to bring more humanitarian assistance in order to help accelerating the refugees come back to Syria.”

One result of the Trump-Putin July 16 summit is discussion of U.S.-Russian cooperation in helping refugees to return to their homes.